☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️

The Democrats will nominate a presidential candidate in 2028 who vociferously condemns Trump's war with Iran — by attacking Trump from the right for not "finishing the job"

Remember Winston Churchill called Iran's oil "a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams." Hilarious for his blithe assumption that it belonged to the UK, and also for his not realizing that in every fairytale such enticing prizes come with a terrible curse for everyone.

Dan Simmons, noted racist, has died. He wrote Hyperion, which contained a good short story and then a lot of other words, which many of us read anyway because it was the Nineties and Waldenbooks had a limited science fiction section.

Epic Fury is actually the perfect name for Trump's attack on Iran. This isn't about nuclear weapons, or democracy, or whatever, but rather 50 years of the childish rage of American elites that Iran hasn't perfectly followed US orders.

time is a flat circle

The thing is, if AI actually works we will end up with five trillionaires constantly using it to try to assassinate each other, with everybody else caught in the crossfire

haha oh no

With the news that Larry Summers has resigned from Harvard, I'd like to point out that I've been a Summers hater since before it was cool. Here's a New Yorker humor piece from 1999 by Michael Gerber & me about his call to "dump a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country"

Good advice here from this spoon

I was thinking this, but I have no personal experience.

Via decades of trial and error, America's right-wing media has perfected the protective stupidity of Crimestop

What country/civilization has developed the best toilets and sewage systems? I feel like this is an area in which humans in general need to raise our game.

If Iran had nuclear weapons, Trump would currently be exchanging love letters with Ayatollah Khamenei

As we wait to find out if the US will attack Iran at the request of the Iranian people, let's remember a previous shining example of humanitarian intervention: Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. After being captured by the US in 2003, Saddam told the FBI Kuwaitis asked Iraq to liberate them.

YouTube video by South China Morning Post Chinese mountain to get escalators for ‘painless climbing experience’

China has built escalators for people to ride up a famous scenic mountain. Not only are the Chinese stealing America's manufacturing base, they're stealing our laziness. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-N1...

our high quality minds are in sync x.com/twitter/stat...

It's not that Iran "views" itself as having the right to enrich uranium as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran DOES have that right. Just read the treaty. It's like the NY Times is saying "Iran views the earth as round."

In 2004 a Bush official explained the *real* reason for the Iraq war: We could not allow Saddam to "defy" America, because that could encourage other countries not to follow our orders. Iranian "defiance," & the way it might give other people ideas, will also be the reason for any war with Iran.

Trump's "case" for war with Iran is obviously totally incoherent. That's because he can't express the genuine reason we may attack Iran: Their government has defied us (ie, hasn't followed all of our orders exactly), and therefore must be punished.

Why Corporate Media Needed to Misrepresent Jesse Jackson The Rev. Jesse Jackson's kind of politics terrified an elite that thrives on keeping the 99 Percent divided and conquered.

The punditocracy was always looking for a Black leader to replace Jesse Jackson, someone who could symbolize racial equality without the challenge to social hierarchy that would be necessary to achieve it.

fair.org/home/why-cor...

After @fairmediawatch.bsky.social critiqued the media's biased coverage of Jesse Jackson...

Jackson sent the critique to his mom to prove to her the coverage of him really was biased!

wow that is a challenging & worthwhile career

well well worth tracking down and watching all of titcut follies

You could teach an entire class about this one Bill Maher tweet during Israel's 2014 attack on Gaza. It has everything: hatred of women, hatred of the Other, contempt for the powerless, love of hurting them — and illustrates why these things so often go together.

YouTube video by You Have Been Watching Films Titicut Follies - The Silencing Of Suffering

Goodbye to Frederick Wiseman, the legendary vérité documentarian, who just died at 96. His first movie, Titicut Follies, is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen, as upsetting as The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRIE...

YouTube video by CRITERION Pina (2011) - Trailer

It's a galactic injustice that I'll never be 1) quarterback for the Washington Redskins nor 2) a member of Pina Bausch's dance troupe www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-cV...

It's troubling how Auschwitz looms far larger in popular memory about the Holocaust than Treblinka, Belzec & Sobibor. Almost twice as many people were murdered at the latter three combined, but the Nazis were able to destroy them before the end of the war. A successful coverup.

Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran There's little public debate about what could be the most consequential U.S. military action in a decade.

It's a sign of the ever-increasing decadence of the American empire that we could be on the brink of a major war with Iran and it's barely discussed. At least with Iraq people were talking about it, Congress voted on it, etc. www.axios.com/2026/02/18/i...

Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran There's little public debate about what could be the most consequential U.S. military action in a decade.

The George W. Bush administration worked tirelessly for years to make sure North Korea got nuclear weapons. Now the Trump administration is committed to doing the same with Iran. axios.com/2026/02/18/i...

The United States is absolutely determined, no matter the cost, to make sure Iran gets nuclear weapons www.axios.com/2026/02/18/i...